Probably a Scary Place
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Gus finds himself lost in the woods at night, where there's possibly a sinister spectre lurking around... Slight Marilyn/Gus.


**Notes:** Written for The-Mocking-J, who gave me the prompts Marilyn & Gus and "Mist". Set sometime before the events of PL4, with some Spectre's Call spoilers. Also, Gus is the UK name for the character called Tweeds in the US version of the game.

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><p>The air grew much colder as the mist settled in. Gus swallowed his nerves, glancing around the dark streets and trying to make sense of where he was. Misthallery might be his home, but the fog had been getting worse since the spectre had started showing up, leaving him as lost as... as... well, something that was very lost. He'd never been good at drawing comparisons.<p>

...Or at talking to his friends.

He gave a loud sniff that had nothing to do with the chill, cursing how stupid he'd been earlier. It was all his fault – he could see that Marilyn had been busy and stressed dealing with the customers at her stall, but he'd hung around anyway. All he'd wanted to do was talk to her, he liked talking to Marilyn the most of all out of all the Black Ravens. But she'd been so caught up in selling stuff, she hadn't had time to talk. Even so, he'd kept trying, until she'd yelled at him. Then he got upset and ran off. It wasn't that he was scared or angry, just that he felt so stupid for making her get that annoyed.

Though even if he hadn't been scared earlier, at this very moment he was glad to admit that he was a bit scared...

Let's see, he knew he hadn't gone too far. Not as far as Highyard Hill, anyway. Before he'd gotten there, he'd turned off into the woods and wandered about for a while. Maybe he'd headed quite far in. At some point he past the nice fish lady's lab, because she'd seen him and warned him not to stay out too late. It had been light then.

It isn't light at all now.

And his mind starts wandering, away from Marilyn and how much she must hate him, onto the rumours of the spectre that plagued Misthallery. It didn't help his nerves, but it's not as if he couldn't think about it, after seeing all the damage it had done. Maybe Louis thought the spectre was some fairy tale, but the broken houses were very real.

Thankfully, the spectre didn't seem interested in the market or the houses around there. Maybe even an ominous ghost creature didn't care about poor people. But right now it didn't matter if the spectre never set foot in the market, because he wasn't in the market, was he? He was... somewhere. It was possible that he'd even wandered into the spectre's secret lair where it went to sleep during the day, before coming out to smash houses and gobble up naughty kids at night.

Okay, so no one had said anything about it eating anyone up to now, but you never know!

There was a squelching sound beneath his feet. He'd stood in some mud. If this was where the spectre lived, then it was certainly an awfully foul place.

But he didn't have much time to think about that, as just ahead of him some leaves crackled underfoot.

"W-w-who's there?" he squeaked, "I'm not scared of you!"

Then something shone in his direction, a brilliant, bright light. It was enough to startle Gus, making him trip over his feet and fall backwards into the oozing liquid the spectre had left behind. Or maybe it was just water from the river, Gus wasn't in the mood to check.

"Gus? Is that you?"

As he pulled himself up, the light came closer. Through the mist he was able to make out Marilyn, heading over to him and looking very concerned. She was carrying a torch and, yes, it turned out that it was the river he was standing in, not monster gloop.

"Hiya Marilyn..." Gus mumbled, looking down at his muddy feet.

"Thank goodness! We've all been so worried about you," she gasped, rushing over, "The others have been out all afternoon. We had no idea you'd have got this far."

So even when he's not there, Gus managed to ruin everyone's day by making them look for him. That's just great. Crow must be so cross to have lost an entire afternoon's worth of work time.

"I'm sorry..." whispered Gus, trudging away from the river and towards where Marilyn was standing.

"Don't be sorry, I'm just glad to see you're all right," Marilyn sighed. She took out a blanket from a bag she'd been carrying and wrapped it around him, "Now let's get out of here before... well, before anything happens."

"Okay," he replied, shuffling along with her, "Um, I'm sorry that I made you angry..."

"What, that? Don't be! It's just that I need to concentrate on the stall when I'm at work," explained Marilyn, "It's not that I don't want to talk to you, it's just that I don't always have the time. But I shouldn't have snapped, that was wrong of me."

"No, I should have known you were too busy. It's just that... I like talking to you..." Gus could feel his voice getting quieter with each word. How come talking to Marilyn earlier had seemed so easy and yet now it was so difficult?

She smiled warmly at him; "I like talking to you, too..."

They looked at each other quietly through the dim light of the torch, but before the butterflies could fly right up out of Gus's stomach, there was a snap overhead that made them both jump. It was soon followed by the caw of a disgruntled bird, but even if it hadn't been a threat, the damage was done.

"D-do you believe in the spectre, Marilyn...?" Gus asked, drawing in on himself, "Louis says it's just some silly story rich people make up."

"I believe that there's... something. And no matter what it is, there's no point hanging around out where it can get us," answered Marilyn, squinting ahead through the gloom as they walked.

"But we're so far from the market. It might... you know," Gus whimpered, "And I'm sure it can run faster than we can..."

"Maybe so, but there's one thing I know for sure," Marilyn said, and suddenly she was staring triumphantly ahead.

"And that's that?" checked Gus.

"That no matter how fast it can run, it'll be no match for one of Bucky's boats."

Following her gaze, Gus caught sight of a large figure appearing from out the fog. If he'd seen it earlier he would have probably been terrified, but right now Bucky's wide, slightly creepy grin seemed like the most welcome sight in the world.

"Let's go then," Marilyn chimed, grabbing hold of Gus's hand, "Before the wicked spectre can catch us!"

So they ran towards the boat, laughing carelessly and, in that moment, feeling safe from whatever creature might lurk in the gloom.


End file.
